moving on.

Jan 18, 2017

Tonight we go to bed for the very last time in our very first house. As someone who grew up moving from house to house and then spent the first half of my twenties living out of a suitcase, I'm not one to typcially get attached to any of my residences.  But this house... it's different. Though I have no doubt that we'll make incredible memories in our brand new home, nothing will ever come close to the ones that we've made here.  
Every little piece of this house has a memory to go with it.  
For instance... the front door. The door that we walked into the first time we saw this house. The door that we walked into as first time home owners, living together for the first time. Walking through OUR front door was a dream come true following a lengthy long distance relationship. 


The island. That beautiful granite counter top. The island where I sat, hand addressing our wedding invitations. The island that I spent many hours at, typing up blog posts and editing photos.   The island with the most perfect reflections for photos.  


The mudroom, where I envisioned my future puppy living.  The mudroom where he slept when we brought him home, and where he has eaten his kibble ever since.
The master bedroom. The bedroom where we hid from the world on lazy Sunday mornings.  The bedroom where I walked to Ryan clutching a positive pregnancy test.  
The guest room.  The guest room that we jam packed with aviation decor, where friends slept when they were visiting from overseas or when they were too tired to drive home.  The guest room that became a travel-themed nursery, that became a little girl's beloved bedroom.


The office. The office that housed all of our important files and Ryan's computer.  The office that Ryan was evicted from to make room for our second baby. The office where I cuddled our sweet little sleep-hating baby in the wee hours of the morning.  


The kitchen. The kitchen where I ruined many meals and had a few successes. The kitchen where I learnt to bake and meticulously decorated for my children's birthday parties. 


This house. This house that will always be our very first home, despite the fact that we've outgrown it. This house that we moved into as a young engaged couple, and that we will move out of as a family of 5. (The dog, I'm counting the dog.)


It makes me happy to think that some time soon someone new will occupy this house and make their very own memories here.  Meanwhile, we'll be busy watching our girls learn and grow in our new home.  
Goodbye house. Thank you for the hospitality over the past 5 years! 

Hello, 2017!

Jan 17, 2017

Oh my goodness, where does the time go?  We are 2 weeks into 2017 and it has been a crazy busy year thus far.  So much has happened since my last post, and I have had so little time to fill you all in... so here's a bit of a catch-up.

Christmas! Christmas came and went and it was wonderful as per usual.
December with a 3 year old was so much fun.  This year, Aaralee made her own gingerbread house, helped bake and decorate cookies for Santa, helped decorate the tree, and melted my heart as she sang in her first ever Christmas concert.  Briley of course thoroughly enjoyed the holiday season as well, but is still a bit too young to really grasp anything that's going on. The girls were graciously showered with gifts and treats but the contents didn't excite them half as much as the actual process of gift opening.  I wasn't joking when I said they'd be happy to receive empty boxes.






Ryan and I are pretty excited about our Christmas gift... we'll open it later this week.  We bought a new home! We've made so many memories in our current home, but since adding 2 kids we've longed for more space. I can't wait to finally be finished packing and to be moved into our brand new house.   


We rang in 2017 on a beautiful beach in Mexico. It was the best trip that we've been on since having kids.  Aaralee had so much fun splashing and playing in the pool and I was blown away at how brave she has gotten since our last trip.  Briley loved running around the resort, chasing the coatis and napping on me as we floated around in our donut pool float.  After months of Ryan working out of town, it was the perfect week away as a family that we needed. 



Our camera (okay, Ryan's camera that I have adopted as my own) decided to stop working on that trip, which was rather disappointing.  Not only because it meant going half of the vacation with only phone photos, but it also meant that I'd be without the camera at home. As of recently I've been trying to take more photos of other people, aside from my children.  After a busy December of taking Christmas photos, I felt like I was just getting into the swing of things. Fortunately, I still have my own camera, and though it's less fancy, it still does the trick! I have a Facebook page now, should you feel so inclined to contribute to the "Camera repair" fund. 


That's pretty much all that I've got for updates and I believe that I've now procrastinated packing long enough. I can't wait to show you our new home and tell you all about the adventures we have planned over the next few months! 
Wish me luck, as it appears that I'll be without internet for the first few weeks and I'm not sure that I'm capable of quitting cold turkey.